page_title: Blythe Danner
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Blythe Danner / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Blythe Danner at the Metropolitan Opera opening in 2008. © Rubenstein, photographer Martyna Borkowski
context_page_description: Blythe Katherine Danner is an American actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including two Primetime Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Izzy Huffstodt on Huff, and a Tony Award for Best Actress for her performance in Butterflies Are Free on Broadway. Danner was twice nominated for the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for portraying Marilyn Truman on Will & Grace, and the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for her roles in We Were the Mulvaneys and Back When We Were Grownups. For the latter, she also received a Golden Globe Award nomination.
  Danner played Dina Byrnes in Meet the Parents and its sequels Meet the Fockers and Little Fockers. She has collaborated on several occasions with Woody Allen, appearing in three of his films: Another Woman, Alice, and Husbands and Wives. Her other notable film credits include 1776, Hearts of the West, The Great Santini, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, The Prince of Tides, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything!
context_section_description: A graduate of Bard College, Danner's first roles included the 1967 musical Mata Hari (closed out of town), and the 1968 Off-Broadway production of Summertree. Her early Broadway appearances included Cyrano de Bergerac (1968) and her Theatre World Award-winning performance in The Miser (1969). She won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for portraying a free-spirited divorcée in Butterflies Are Free (1970).
  In 1972, Danner portrayed Martha Jefferson in the film version of 1776. That same year, she played a wife whose husband has been unfaithful, opposite Peter Falk and John Cassavetes, in the Columbo episode "Etude in Black".
  Her earliest starring film role was opposite Alan Alda in To Kill a Clown (1972). Danner appeared in the episode of M*A*S*H entitled "The More I See You", playing the love interest of Alda's character Hawkeye Pierce. She played lawyer Amanda Bonner in television's Adam's Rib, also opposite Ken Howard as Adam Bonner.  She played Zelda Fitzgerald in F. Scott Fitzgerald and 'The Last of the Belles' (1974). She was the eponymous heroine in the film Lovin' Molly (1974) (directed by Sidney Lumet). She appeared in Futureworld, playing Tracy Ballard with co-star Peter Fonda (1976). In the 1982 TV movie Inside the Third Reich, she played the wife of Albert Speer. In the film version of Neil Simon's semi-autobiographical play Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986), she portrayed a middle-aged Jewish mother. She has appeared in two films based on the novels of Pat Conroy, The Great Santini (1979) and The Prince of Tides (1991), as well as two television movies adapted from books by Anne Tyler, Saint Maybe and Back When We Were Grownups, both for the Hallmark Hall of Fame.
  Danner appeared opposite Robert De Niro in the 2000 comedy hit Meet the Parents, and its sequels, Meet the Fockers (2004) and Little Fockers (2010).
  From 2001 to 2006, she regularly appeared on NBC's sitcom Will & Grace as Will Truman's mother Marilyn. From 2004 to 2006, she starred in the main cast of the comedy-drama series Huff. In 2005, she was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards for her work on Will & Grace, Huff, and the television film Back When We Were Grownups, winning for her role in Huff. The following year, she won a second consecutive Emmy Award for Huff. For 25 years, she has been a regular performer at the Williamstown Summer Theater Festival, where she also serves on the Board of Directors.
  In 2006, Danner was awarded an inaugural Katharine Hepburn Medal by Bryn Mawr College's Katharine Houghton Hepburn Center. In 2015, Danner was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
caption: Danner at the Metropolitan Opera opening, September 22, 2008
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